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On October 7, 2019, the FCC's Media Bureau granted a limited waiver requested by NBCUniversal, LLC (NBC Universal), on behalf of its wholly owned nonbroadcast programming network, USA Network, of the Commission’s video description rules, as long as USA Network airs at least 1,000 hours of described programming each quarter without regard to the number of repeats and describes at least 75 percent of any newly produced, non-live programming that is aired between 6:00 a.m. and midnight per quarter. However, the FCC declined to grant NBCUniversal’s proposed safe harbor from the video description requirements for other similarly situated, top five nonbroadcast networks.

General information about the FCC's video description requirements is available at https://www.fcc.gov/general/video-description. For further information about this waiver, please contact Maria Mullarkey, Media Bureau, at (202) 418-2120 or Maria.Mullarkey@fcc.gov. Individuals who use videophones and are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) may call the FCC's ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432-2275 (videophone). Individuals using a text teletypewriter (TTY) may call the FCC's TTY number at (888) 835-5322.